The Water Supply of Constantinople. 3 



to provide water for the crowds that were flocking to this 

 queen city. And the lofty aqueduct which was built by 

 him more than fifteen hundred years since, is still the chief 

 channel for water from Belgrade to the capital. 



The well water of the city was then and still is bitter ; 

 the water of the two seas was salt ; and the only river near 

 by was far too small to afford an adequate quantity. The 

 plan then adopted by his engineers, and the constructions 

 then made, have been retained, with expansions by suc- 

 cessive kings and sultans, to the present time. 



The course adopted was to make dams across the mouths 

 of the upper valleys, arresting the smallest rill in its pro- 

 gress. From the ponds thus formed, the water was con- 

 ducted in channels of cylindrical tiles to larger reservoirs 

 formed by larger dams. Those of the lower reservoirs 

 were most solid constructions of marble, eighty and a hun- 

 dred feet in height. The banks were left in their natural 

 state, the trees growing down to the edges of the lakes. 



The people give the name of dam or bendt to the lake 

 formed by the dam; the Persian word bendt being perhaps 

 the same in its etymology as our words band, bind and bond. 

 The water from one set of bendts is conducted by the 

 Crooked aqueduct to the aqueduct of Justinian, and the 

 water from another set of dams which are farther to the 

 west, is conducted by the Long aqueduct, also to the aque- 

 duct of Justinian. 



The Crooked aqueduct, so called because it makes a turn 

 or elbow in crossing the valley, is nearly 1,000 feet long, 

 670 feet on one length and 300 feet on the other. It res£s 

 upon three tiers of arches, having a breadth at the base of 

 twenty-one feet, and at the top of eleven. It is a rustic 

 work in fine taste stretching across a valley 600 feet wide. 

 There is an arched passage way through the upper tier of 

 twenty-one arches by which one can cross from one side of 



